Re: JP3 Thoughts (frilled Dilophosaurus revisited)

["Bruce E Shillinglaw" <SHILLINGLAWB@prodigy.net>]

Hi, All!
    IIRC, in Chrichton's book, the *Dilophosaurus* were rather slow-moving
predators which flung, rather than "spit" their somewhat toxic saliva at
Dennis Nedry's eyes. They did this by violently swinging their heads... and
they had no frills. In any case, if the *Dilophosaurus* was thinking of
Nedry as a potential meal, the display of the frill, accompanied by roaring
and screaming, would seem rather counter-productive! Offhand, I can't think
of any predators which announce to their prey "Here I am! I'm coming to eat
you! Be afraid of me and lie down, now, like a good little meal!"... Can
you?  - - Though in a fantasy movie - it does look rather cool...
    Which leads to another topic - sort of... In terms of venomous snakes, I
thought that the venom was highly modified saliva, not a derivative of
protective body-toxins. This would make sense, since the venom would start
the digestive process from the inside out...
    Any thoughts or comments?
            B.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Kinman" <kinman@hotmail.com>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2001 3:44 AM
Subject: Re: JP3 Thoughts (frilled Dilophosaurus revisited)


>      And the probability that any of them spit black tar-like venom, or
any
> venom at all, is almost nil.  I'm obviously all for speculation, but what
> Jurassic Park No. I did with Dilophosaurus was a bad idea.  If they had
> called it an unknown theropod, I could have swallowed that possibility.
But
> specifically connecting it with a specific genus for which there is no
> evidence of venom (spitting or not), or even a frill, was a really dumb
> idea, in the book or the movie.  A high-tech movie should have
> high-technical type scientific consultants.
>      This is apparently the typical selling-out for the allmighty dollar,
> not to mention the dumbing down typical of the lowest-common-denominator
> level of entertainment that will continue if we don't complain about it.
We
> should not be making excuses for them.  This kind of speculation wouldn't
> even pass muster on a newsgroup like this, so it certainly has no place in
a
> major movie production that will be seen by millions.  As Dennis this
> computer guy said in that movie, "don't get cheap on me."   They appear to
> be cheap when it comes to paying for consultants, or they just don't care.
> Either way, it stinks.